Longtime Ferndale Administrative Assistant Shirley Ahlgrim Retires

Shirley Ahlgrim, who has parked in the same parking spot outside of  for the past 25 years, has been the first to arrive to work and the last to leave almost every day.

Ahlgrim, the longtime administrative assistant to the Ferndale city manager, had her last day of work Tuesday. Reflecting on her retirement, Ahlgrim said the hardest part is leaving behind the group of people she has worked with - “one big family,” she called them.

“This is really tough, to say goodbye to the staff,” she said. “I've gone through their marriages, divorces, the births of their children …. That's what's so hard to leave – the 'family.'”

Ahlgrim spent 25 years working with the city manager in Hazel Park before taking the job with Ferndale. She started at Hazel Park just after her high school graduation.

“I graduated on a Thursday and I started in Hazel Park the following Monday,” she said.

A Ferndale resident, Ahlgrim said she has no big plans for retirement but may eventually seek part-time work.

“I'm just going to kind of take it easy for a while, do some things that I want to do around the house, spend more time with my two granddaughters, and see what happens,” she said.

Over the past several weeks, many city staff have expressed gratitude to Ahlgrim for her service and commended her on her excellent work. A party in her honor took place last week.

“I have just been overwhelmed,” Ahlgrim said of the response she has received from staff. “It's just been really great, which makes it even harder to leave. But the city will carry on and so will I.”

Ahlgrim says she will stay in Ferndale – a city she knows well and has watched evolve over the years into “a great entertainment community, a great family community.”

“It's just a great community,” she said.